Succeed Programme for KZN businesswomen

Pictured at the launch of the 2009 KwaZulu-Natal Succeed Programme from left are: Preya Chetty of Adonai Wholesalers, Russell Curtis CEO of DIPA, Zanele Mngoma of Mabhala Foods and mentor Chris Clarke of Deloitte.

The 2009 KwaZulu-Natal Succeed Programme, directed jointly by the Deloitte Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) and the eThekwini Municipality's Business Support and Markets unit, was launched recently amid great expectations for the entrepreneurs involved.

Deloitte's WLI representative Kimmy Singh said the idea was to assist women entrepreneurs to build and maintain sustainable businesses. "Many interventions for young companies focus on how to raise finance rather than providing the skills and advice to ensure that the business succeeds - which is the very essence of the Succeed programme."

Proper representation for women in business

Speaking at the breakfast launch at Deloitte headquarters in Umhlanga, eThekwini's deputy mayor, Logie Naidoo, said the Succeed KZN initiative came hot on the heels of very successful Women in Business conference hosted by the municipality.

"These initiatives are part of a national effort to ensure that women are properly represented in the business world. I commend the effort by Deloitte to empower the selected women in business by participating in the mentorship programme with the eThekwini Municipality. It shows the highest level of co-operation and commitment to the development of SMME's in our region, and I urge all corporate companies to emulate this effort and follow suit."

The 20 women, mainly from the greater Durban region, represent a variety of business sectors, including retail, manufacturing, construction, interior decorating and event co-ordinating and organising. They all went through an application process before being admitted to the programme.

The mentors

Deloitte mentors include senior managers, partners and directors from service lines such as audit, taxation, consulting, information technology, risk advisory, corporate finance, human resources and events co-ordination.

"These experienced individuals will have access to the internal knowledge resources as well as the expertise of their colleagues in other service lines to ensure the women get the best possible advice and support. The mentors will also work through the Deloitte entrepreneur business tool kits with the entrepreneurs to assist them to achieve their strategic goals," said Singh.

Excellent initiatives

This is the first time the programme is being piloted by Deloitte KZN, which chose to partner eThekwini because of the municipality's "many excellent initiatives that facilitate the process of entrepreneurs starting their own businesses. We wanted to add value to their initiatives by providing the mentoring required to help these businesses to become sustainable and to grow, thus contributing to growth in the economy at large," said Singh.

"This is a pilot project in KZN and will run for a year. The intention is to build a sustainable mentorship programme to assist women entrepreneurs.

"Each mentor and entrepreneur will decide on what the key focus areas their mentoring sessions will cover. It could be different for each woman - for example, an entrepreneur may wish to grow her business through increasing sales volumes, in which case volumes would be a key performance indicator. This will be tracked and measured over the one-year period and recognised at an awards function to be held at the end of the programme," said Singh.